2005 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Minorities' Military Service during World War I and their Fight for Citizenship in U.S. and Canada
| Project/Area Number |
15520457
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
History of Europe and America
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| Research Institution | Toyogakuen University |
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Principal Investigator |
TAKAMURA Hiroko Toyogakuen University, Department of Humanities, Professor, 人文学部, 教授 (40216792)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2003 – 2006
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| Keywords | America / Canada / World War I / Citizenship / Japanese / Woman suffrage / Indians / Minorities |
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| Research Abstract |
The major purpose of this project is to investigate Japanese immigrants who served in American or Canadian Militaries during World War I, focusing on their postwar campaign for citizenship, the right to naturalization in U.S. and the right to vote in Canada. In addition, this research also covers the cases of American and Canadian women who contributed to war efforts and realized woman suffrage after the war. This project also includes the research on native soldiers who fought in the war in the context of native people's citizenship problems in U.S. and Canada. These cases should give comparative perspectves on relations between minorities' military sevice and the grant of citizenship.
In Canada, 196 Japanese volunteers fought in Eouropean war front, and in U.S., too, about 500 Japanese Issei enlisted in U.S. Military.
Their motives were to win citizenship by performing loyalty and patriotism. After the war, however, they gained no permanent advantage from their military service because of racism. Both in U.S. and in Canada, Japanese veterans continued campaign for citizenship, gaining support from veterans' organizations. In Canada, the British Columbia Legislature finally passed the amendment of election act to grant franchise to Japanese veterans in 1931. In U.S., as a result of lobbying in Washington, the Nye-Lea Bill to authorize the naturalization of Asian veterans passed the Congress.
What had prevented women from suffrage was the idea that women coould not bear arms in the wartime. Women's contribution to the forst world war as soldiers and as civilians helped Congressmen recognize women as first-class citizens. On the other hand, native Indians in U.S. and Canada who fought in World War I did not necessarily seek for citizenship so much as other minorities. Their first motive was to show their tradition as warriors.
Thus, Japanese experience indicates that military performance functions as a key for minorities to cross the border to the first-class citizens.
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